Facebook for Android updated with new privacy features, photo tagging

Facebook for Android has been updated to version 1.7, bringing it up to par with the iOS version in terms of features. Along with improved privacy features, including being able to select who sees your posts, the News Feed has received a small aesthetic refresh. But the biggest improvement is in the Status Update section: it is extremely easy, using the Android contact list feature, to tag users in your posts and photos. And because the check-in feature has been migrated to the post page, it’s easy to say “Going swimming with John Smith at XYZ Pool” and have both person and place link to their respective profile pages.

The Photos section has received some a spit-shine, too. You can now swipe between photos, and easily comment, share or set a photo as a Contact Icon or Home Screen wallpaper.

While a minor update, it’s nice to know Facebook is trying to keep its iOS and Facebook apps at feature parity, even if it takes a while longer to come to Google’s platform. Full changelog after the break.

– Made it easier to share with who you want
– Improved the sharing tool to add privacy controls on posts and match your settings on the web site
– Added the ability to tag friends and places in posts
– Added new design for Profile and Group Walls

Fixes and tweaks:
– Improved photo browsing with swiping
– Added the ability to tag your friends in photos
– Improved Messages and Notifications
– Fixed a number of crashes and performance issues

This app is still garbage – it still takes FOREVER to load a page or images. It also still force closes half the time. It blows me away that a company with the resources of facebook can’t produce descent products.

Mathieu

It’s getting a little bit better.
But, seriously, Facebook is supposed to be one of the most used services on mobile devices in the world and the Facebook app for Android is still pretty bad.
It’s like they do not listen to what Google is telling developers to do.

Alex Perrier

People, are you using FB on Wi-Fi or on 3G? i would do speed test in both scenarios.

Jon

^^^ both connection methods produce the same level of suck. It’s not the connection speed, it’s the apps rendering speed, or lack there of.

Darren

When will we see a Tablet/honeycomb FB app?

Binku

Out from all those android apps, only facebook application is soooooooooo sloooooooooow. Mark is an a*****e or android n00b.

jay

i got this last night on xperia arc. before the update chat was unreliable, white screening and lag all the time. on first launch with update it did white screen for 5 minutes, but after that, it’s been very snappy and notifications are working noticeably better. maybe i can finally delete the fb messenger app.

Kelvin

FCs on my tablet. Thankfully TweetDeck and the new Messenger covers most of my FB needs anyway. Probably will hold off updating on phone.

bort

This s**t doesn’t work. Never had a problem until now. Thanks assholes

Jeff Norden

It doesn’t work on my recently upgraded Xperia X10 Android 2.3.3. I had to install it.

Jeff Norden

I meant to type uninstall.

Jay

try to clear cache of facebook after update! problems solved! Enjoy!

Chris

@Darren

You can install it from market on honeycomb devices as of this update

Mark

Here’s what I notice so far: App activates GPS when opened. No way to turn this off or stop it from accessing my location. Then after I close the FB app GPS keeps turning on every few seconds/minutes. Not only the worst battery drain possible but the worst violation of privacy, and coming from FB that’s pretty damn bad.

Devil’s Advocate

I don’t have a problem with Facebook on my phone. I don’t have it installed. I use Google+ instead.